If I'd of known how to bake a cake...
Last night I got a chance to use my new spiffy KitchenAid stand mixer to make my birthday cake for today. It was an interesting experience with lots of wisdom to be learned. Where to start...
1) Just because the mixer isn't hitting a spot on the bowl doesn't mean that you can get a spatula in there. I couldn't just stand there and watch the mixer do all the work. It's like watching paint dry, only a little more frustrating when it's not hitting a spot on the bowl. I tried to poke my spatula in there only to have the mixer grab it out of my hand and then throw it back at me. Lesson learned.
2) Use more non-stick spray. Nuf said?
3) Freeze the second layer before attempting to put it on the first layer. In my defense, I've only ever made 9" round cakes, which are easy to palm and place on the layer below them. 13"x9" cakes are quite another matter altogether. And when they are warm and moist they require more than two hands to hold them (or flip them from their cooling rack) or else they'll break into 3, or more, pieces -- landing solidly off center of the layer below, but being instantly cemented into place by the icing below. Pushing a warm moist cake across cool icing is even harder than it sounds.
4) Buy 3 tubs of icing when making a two layer 13"x9" cake because running to the store at 10pm at night to buy a single tub of milk chocolate icing looks pathetic. Trust me on this. I had to explain that I was actually making a cake and had run out of icing. I was not, as first suspected, just going home to eat raw icing out of the tub in some manic depressive state. If you buy three tubs of icing while buying two boxes of cake mix, no one gives you a second look and there's a lot less explaining to do.
5) If you buy a really expensive cake pan, the cake rises level and you don't need that really expensive knife to level it after it's baked. Oh well, it's still a really cool knife.
6) Take a cake decorating class. Really.
Oh well, the only saving grace is that I doubt any of this changes the taste of the cake, and I found it all very amusing. Next time I'm sure I'll make a whole new list of errors, but hopefully that will be fun too.
1) Just because the mixer isn't hitting a spot on the bowl doesn't mean that you can get a spatula in there. I couldn't just stand there and watch the mixer do all the work. It's like watching paint dry, only a little more frustrating when it's not hitting a spot on the bowl. I tried to poke my spatula in there only to have the mixer grab it out of my hand and then throw it back at me. Lesson learned.
2) Use more non-stick spray. Nuf said?
3) Freeze the second layer before attempting to put it on the first layer. In my defense, I've only ever made 9" round cakes, which are easy to palm and place on the layer below them. 13"x9" cakes are quite another matter altogether. And when they are warm and moist they require more than two hands to hold them (or flip them from their cooling rack) or else they'll break into 3, or more, pieces -- landing solidly off center of the layer below, but being instantly cemented into place by the icing below. Pushing a warm moist cake across cool icing is even harder than it sounds.
4) Buy 3 tubs of icing when making a two layer 13"x9" cake because running to the store at 10pm at night to buy a single tub of milk chocolate icing looks pathetic. Trust me on this. I had to explain that I was actually making a cake and had run out of icing. I was not, as first suspected, just going home to eat raw icing out of the tub in some manic depressive state. If you buy three tubs of icing while buying two boxes of cake mix, no one gives you a second look and there's a lot less explaining to do.
5) If you buy a really expensive cake pan, the cake rises level and you don't need that really expensive knife to level it after it's baked. Oh well, it's still a really cool knife.
6) Take a cake decorating class. Really.
Oh well, the only saving grace is that I doubt any of this changes the taste of the cake, and I found it all very amusing. Next time I'm sure I'll make a whole new list of errors, but hopefully that will be fun too.
posted by Mark at 10:10 AM
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